This guest blog post is from Angel Manzo titled "Insecurities & Judgments."
One week ago I had no business idea and no team. Now I have attachments to several ideas, team bonding, and boundless optimism paired with sheer fright. This journey has been eye-opening, ego-crushing and inspirational. If this emotional roller-coaster ride is indicative of what’s to come as an entrepreneur, then I’d better hold on tight with both hands!
I moved to Silicon Valley 2 years ago from a great job in Los Angeles with my now husband with one simple objective -- create a business. I abandoned 10 years worth of Hollywood networking and contacts to jump head first into the tight-knit community of the Silicon Valley tech world. I didn’t know a soul and instead leveraged my television producing talents to gain inroads into a few circles. After helping my husband launch his own startup and a handful of stints around the bay, enter Founder Labs Mobile. Although I’ve had several business ideas and one failed attempt, what I truly hoped to gain was at least one solid partner.

On day one of Founder Labs, I began to go down my mental checklist of “must-haves, can live with that, and deal-breakers” I know I needed and wanted in a founder. I can promise you this, my short list changed so many times especially as I evolved and stopped acting from ignorance. At some point, I realized I was putting people into little boxes of superficial categories and once I got the stench of hypocrisy off of me I was able to focus on heart not just pedigree. I realize I am admitting all this at the risk of sounding shallow, but I am also an early adopter of the “transparency movement”. Success can be an improbable objective in an of itself, that it’s not necessary to muddy that journey with pretentiousness.

So what other insights have I gained in one week? How seductive it is to be drawn to half-baked ideas initially, rather than to a team you don’t know well yet. This was the case for me; I couldn’t entertain the thought of working on something I wasn’t completely enamored with therefore, I began to panic and focus on weeding out ideas rather than on finding the best potential co-founders. Fortunately, I did not allow my short-term mentality get the best of me. Rather discipline kicked in and I began to gravitate towards Ran, Mike and Phat, who I’m honored selected me as well.